历史上人们普遍认为，新大陆的土著居民大概在3000年前开始吸食雪茄烟叶，这是16世纪的英国人沃尔特·罗利爵士的发现。但是最近出土的一些证据有力的表明，人类对烟草的使用比目前已知的要古老的多，最早可以追溯到12000年以前。

2015年，在美国犹他州大盐湖沙漠的一个考古调查中发现了一个史前遗址，这个地区被称为叉骨遗址。达伦·杜克和他的考古队在远西人类学研究集团公司的资助下对这块遗址进行了挖掘。根据CNN的报道，他们发现了一个1万年前属于石器时代晚期的壁炉，伴随着可以预期的黑曜石长矛枪头和动物骨骼。但是还有一些意想不到的发现：烧焦的雪茄烟叶种子。这些种子较小，无法测定年份。但是通过对壁炉里的多个样本进行碳年份测算，表明这个壁炉是大约12300年前的历史遗迹。

在那个时代世界和我们今天所处的环境不太一样，那是一个充满植被和野生动物的湿地，为石器时代的猎人和他们的家人提供食物。事实上，沙漠曾经是一个巨大的湖泊的底部。包括烟草在内的农业植物的种植又进化了大概2000年的时间。这时候人类主要是狩猎和采集来获取食物，他们追随成群的动物远距离狩猎，边走边觅食。这是烟草种子出现在湿地的最大可能原因，毕竟烟草是不生长在湿地中。

根据杜克的判断，考古团队排除了烟草种子通过自然方式进入壁炉的可能性，比如通过鸭子或者其他水禽的胃，现场没有发现水禽的骨骼。烟草种子也不可能是壁炉里的燃料，缺乏木质纤维，烟草植物并不是理想的燃料来源。

大家一致接受的结论是烟草种子是被石器时代的人类特意烘烤，或者人类咀嚼后吐到壁炉里。

不管具体的场景是如何，似乎我们的史前同类们坐在壁炉前正在享受着烟草的愉快陪伴。

附原文：

It has been historically accepted that indigenous peoples in the New World began smoking tobacco approximately 3,000 years ago, a delightful find that Sir Walter Raleigh brought back to England in the sixteenth century. But recently unearthed evidence now strongly suggests that tobacco use is far older than originally believed, and has been part of North American history for some 12,000 years.

In 2015 a prehistoric site was discovered during a routine archeological survey of the Great Salt Lake Desert in Utah. The area, dubbed the Wishbone site, was then excavated by Daron Duke and his team from Far Western Anthropological Research Group Inc. According to a report from CNN, they found a hearth dating back to around 10,000 B.C., the late Stone Age, which had such expected findings as obsidian spear tips and animal bones. But the team botanist also noticed something quite unexpected: charred tobacco seeds. The tiny seeds were too small to date directly, but carbon dating multiple samples from the hearth showed that the fire was lit approximately 12,300 years ago.

The area at that time would not have been as we know it today–then, it would have been a wetland full of vegetation and wildlife for the Stone Age hunters to provide food for their families. In fact, the desert is the bottom of what used to be a giant lake. Agriculture and the domesticated growing of plants including tobacco was about another 2,000 years off. Humans at this time would have consisted of nomadic hunters and gatherers who traveled great distances following herds of animals to hunt, foraging as they went along, which is how the tobacco seeds may have ended up in the wetlands, an area where it does not grow.

According to Duke, the team ruled out the possibility that the seeds could have ended up in the hearth by natural means, such as from the stomach of one of the ducks or other waterfowl whose bones were found at the site. The seeds were also unlikely to come from burning tobacco in the fire since its lack of woody fiber makes it a less-than-desirable fuel source.

The accepted theory is that the seeds made their way into the fire by being smoked, or chewed and spat out by the hunter-gatherers.

However it was used, it seems our prehistoric brethren enjoyed the pleasant company of tobacco as they sat around the fire.